GRIEVANCE COMMITTEE See Editorial Page : '1 Eighty-Nine Years of Editorial Freedom att40 WARMISH High-400 Low-250 See Today for Details Vol. LXXXIX, No. 124 Ann Arbor, Michigan-Tuesday, February 27, 1979 Ten Cents Ten Pages " Council sti By JEFFREY WOLFF Six months after the controversial creation of Ann Ar- bor's Economic Development Corporation (EDC), City Council last week rejected the first project proposed by EDC-an Elias Brothers Big Boy restaurant. The Elias Brothers proposal, however, is regarded by both EDC supporters and its largely Democratic opposition as atypical of future EDC projects and its rejection is not viewed as a shift in Council's partisan-based attitudes toward the bond-issuing public corporation. EDC IS A FINANCIAL tool through which the city can issue low interest tax-Exempt bonds aimed at attracting Il 1 _ 0 OL _ I I spur overt new businesses and encouraging expansion and/or renovation of existing ones. An-enterprise seeking EDC support, such as Elias Brothers, must submit a description of its proposed project to the nine-member EDC board, which was appointed by the mayor and approved by Council when EDC was created last July. If the board, and then Council, approves the ap- plication, EDC may then issue the low interest bonds. Because EDC is a branch of city government its bonds are tax-exempt. A buyer does not have to pay taxes on the EDC bonds and is therefore willing to accept a relatively ;DC, rejects low interest rate. IF COUNCIL had approved Elias Brothers' application for EDC issuance of $800,000 in bonds, Elias Brothers would have succeeded in acquiring the necessary capital at a seven per cent rate, rather than the current over 11 per cent prime rate it would have had to accept'from a bank. EDC bonds are repaid with the revenues from the project and the city assumes no liability. A spokesman for Elias Brothers said Council's decision will most likely mean the company will not build the new restaurant in Ann Arbor. trst project Since the Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce drew up the specific articles of corporation, and proposed the EDC to Council last summer, Democrats have viewed it as a blin- dly prorbusiness tool. The emergence of EDC as -a partisan issue was strengthened on account of its sponsorship by then-Councilman Louis Belcher, who included it in his Republican mayoral campaign platform. AT THE SAME TIME, city Democrats were seeking the establishment of a Downtown Development Authority (DDA) to emphasize concerns in areas such as housing and See CITY, Page 2 Hanoi claims China suffers severe losses rnoto by DAVE GAL This photograph of the sun at its point of maximum obscuration at noon yesterday was taken from East Quad with the aperature at 32, a shutter speed of one one-thousandth of a second and an ultra-violet filter. Awesome solar vanishing act enthralls thousands By TIMOTHY YAGLE With wire reports Ann Arbor skywatchers joined the rest of the country in witnessing one of nature's most awesome spectacles which won't be repeated until the twen- ty-first century. Animals milled nervously and con- fused roosters crowed twice as the moon slid in front of the sun yesterday, and day turned into night briefly along a 175-mile-wide path across the north- western United States and Canada. This is the last time a full eclipse will be visible in the continental United States until August, 2017. ABOUT 40 eclipse enthusiasts gathered in front of the Dennison Building for about an hour starting at 11:30 a.m. yesterday. With two telescopes provided by the Astronomy Department, a homemade four-and-a- quarter-inch reflecting model, and a few simple pinhole projectors, the chilly spectators observed the 75 per cent locking of the sun over Ann Ar- bor. Though partly cloudy and quite hazy skies, the sun reached its crescent, moon-like shape at 12:01 p.m. Ironically, after the spectacular portion of the partial eclipse had ended, the sky became brilliantly clear. See AWESOME, Page 7 From Reuter and AP Vietnam said yesterday that Chinese troops have thrust up to 25 miles into its. territory but were suffering severe casualties in heavy fighting.. Radio Hanoi did not name the points of deepest penetration, but said the Chinese have committed five army corps consisting of 25 divisions to their attack - more, it added, than the Americans ever had in Vietnam. It also quoted foreign sources as saying the Chinese have moved up seven army corps close to the border "in preparation for an intensificationof the war." THE RADIO said 2,300 Chinese were killed or wounded in three border provinces from Friday through Sunday, bringing the total number of casualties it has reported in the 10-day border war to more than 18,000. Vietnam has given no casualty figures for'its own forces. Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko said the Chinese were "doomed to failure" in their conflict with Vietnam and repeated the Kremlin's warning that Peking should "stop before it is too late." Gromyko's comments, in a speech before his electoral constituency in Minsk, came as the Soviet government newspaper Izvestia reported from Vietnam that Chinese forces were preparing to invade Laos in conjunction with their move in Vietnam. IN PEKING, Senior Vice Premier Teng Hsiao-ping was quoted as saying China hoped the fighting would not last as long as the 33-day-long Sino-Indian border war of 1962, but that the length of the conflict would depend on Hanoi. A Chinese official told American reporters that China's invasion of Viet- nam is not "that big an issue," and he indicated Peking's leaders are not con- cerned about U.S. criticism of their ac- tions. "We don't force our views on anyone else," the official said, adding that Vietnam still must be dealt "some blows" before the fighting can end. THE OFFICIAL spoke with the reporters - who are accompanying Treasury Secretary W. Michael Blumenthal on his current visit to Chin~a - on the condition that his name not be used. There were some signs yesterday that Chinese leaders were annoyed by Blumenthal's banquet toast Sunday bluntly describing China as the "tran- sgressor" in the war and warning that it could hinder the growth of U.S.- Chinese relations and risk a wider war. This "message" to the Chinese was said to have had President Carter's en- dorsement. One indication of Chinese pique may be the lack of participation by top Peking officials in the formal opening ceremony of the U.S. Embassy here Thursday. AT THE United Nations, the Security Council was in recess as delegates con- ferred privately en a possible com- promise resolution aimed at moving the Indochina crisis to the negotiating table. Radio Hanoi reported fighting in three of Vietnam's seven border, provinces, the heaviest near' the north- western provincial capital of Lao Lai where it claimed 1,400 Chinese troops were put out of action over the weekend. In addition to Lao Cai, a border town whose fall Vietnam admitted last Tuesday, the radio said fighting raged around the northeastern provincial capital of Lang Son and in the Hai Nung district of Northeastern Quang Ninh Province. Daily Photo by DAN OBERDORFER Mary Rebone, a Literary College (LSA) sophomore, shivered as she watched the eclipse in this chilly wintery weather. On her left is Timothy Fox, LSA senior. CITY CQUNCIL DEBA TESISSUE: Airport By ELISA ISAACSON The proposed installation of a new navigational aid for Ann Arbor Municipal Airport has brought to the floor once 'again the issue of the air- port's expansion - a question thought resolved in 1975 by a 7-3 City Council vote to preserve the status quo. The city now has the opportunity to accept the Federal Aviation Ad- ministration's (FAA) offer of a partial instrument landing system (ILS). The debate is basically divided bet- ween the pilots and the residents over whose homes the planes would be direc- ted, should the system be installed. OBSERVERS POINT out the airport issue has become increasingly partisan since the 1975 decision. While aviators claim an ILS project would provide a much needed safety device for the airport, other observers, say the airport is already perfectly safe. There was also much questioning whether the present 3,500-foot runway might be expanded to provide full ILS. At a council wrking session last night, which hosted a standing room only crowd of interested citizens, several false impressions were dispelled. But even the experts from the FAA and Detroit Metropolitan and Willow Run airports were unable to an- swer all the questions citizens and* council members proposed. WHILE AVIATORS claim Ann Arbor's airport goes back to the stone Tuesday Swimmer Bob Murray is aiming for two individual Big Ten cham- pionships this weekend in Columbus. See story, Page 8. * Rep. Charles Diggs (D-Mich.); voted on legislation for the first time since his criminal conviction. The action could mean a move to expel Diggs. See story, Page 2. * Israel decides today whether to accept President Carter's invitation to a Mideast summit that doesn't in- may get navigation aid age in terms of safety techniques, since it is the only tower-controlled station in the state without an IL§. Other citizens point' out the new techniques might require expansion of the airport which would cost the taxpayers money and would benefit only the pilots. Many citizens who live near the air- port said they fear increased noise over their homes. There was some misunderstanding about the exact character of the device - to be installed. Some media sources had neglected to mention that the system is only a partial ILS. And a complete ILS includes a vertical guidance component as well. MARGARET O'Connor, representing Lodi Township near the airport, quoted an FAA official as saying the Ann Arbor airport's runway is too short to have the full ILS. The runway is presently 3,500 feet long and O'Connor said she believed a federal regulation is pending which will require an airport with a full ILS to have a runway of at least 5,000 feet. At present she said no Michigan airport with an ILS has a runway shor- ter than 5,000 feet long. Councilman Gerald Bell (R-Fifth Ward) commented he thought not one of the current council members would approve expansion of the airport. "My feeling is that no one has ever wanted to expand the runway - not in length, anyway," he said. The councilman ad- ded, however, that he himself has been in favor of realigning the runway. Bell predicted it (the ILS) is shown to be safer, it will pass. JAMES KENWORTHY, Democratic candidate for mayor, addressed coun- cil, saying he did not feel the airport should be expanded. Referring to the 1975 Council decision to preserve the airport's current size, Kenworthy said, "Nothing has happened since then in terms of airport finances, city finances, city taxes, and city services. Land use and airport operations leads me to think it would do so (expand the air- port)." Kenworthy pointed out that last year the city spent thousands of dollars from the general fund budget to reconstruct the runway. "That runway, which is used by a few, is in better shape than the city streets used by the rest of us," he said. The former Fourth Ward coun- cilman said he fears that the in- stallation of the ILS would result in ex- pansion of the airport. New managerial outin e for 'U' Cellar postponed, By RON GIFFORD "In recognition of concern expressed by a number of employees," the University Cellar Board of Directors has postponed implementing a new managerial structure that has caused controversy during the last two weeks. Iranians free American captive TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Islamic Iranian Oil Co., said Iran would resume revolutionaries arrested an American, oil exports next week but did not say a Belgian and two Britons employed by exactly when or in what amounts. an oil-drilling company, a company But Prime Minister Medhi Bazargan spokesman reported, but British of- told Robert MacNeil of public ficials said later the men were television's MacNeil-LehrerReport questioned and then released, that exports would start in about two The company spokesman said the months to any country except Israel four were detained yesterday on willing to pay the price. He said exports charges of plundering the wealth of would eventually reach 50 to 60 per cent Iran by charging exorbitant prices." of the pre-revolution level of 5.4 million IN ANOTHER development, Hassan barrels a day. f Nazib, new director of the Nationaly There was speculation some Iranian Thnousands have fled, but -many Iranian Jews stay oil sold on the "spot" market, which does not involve long-term contracts, could bring up to $24 a barrell, about $10, a barrel more than the official price of, the Organization of Petroleum Expor- ting Countries (OPEC). THERE WERE few details about the four arrests. The American Embassy said it knew nothing of the matter and spokesmen for Iran's new government declined to comment. Spokesman Jim Mackin of the Irvine, Calif.-based Fluor Co., the drilling and construction firm employing the four men, identified the American as John Cassiha, 49, who went to high school in South Carolina but describes himself as a "perennial expatriate." The Britons were identified as W.W. Walsh and K. Thompson and the Belgian as P. Detrez. No hometowns were available. They were employed in the. southern city of Aghajari, Mackin eaid Employees of the Cellar had ex- pressed a fear that their ability to in- fluence the decision-making process at the store would be taken away by the new structure, which called for two more assistant manager positions and a supervisor to head each store depar- tment. Currently, most of the decisions made in those departments are reached collectively by its workers. Store manager Tudor Bradley posted a notice outlining the board's proposed structure change on Feb. 16. This action was met with immediate displeasure from the employees, who felt it destroyed their input into the store's decisions. On Monday and Wednesday of last week a large number of workers called in sick to protest the move, and last Friday the board met with a group of employees to discuss the plan. IN A MEMORANDUM posted yesterday, the board said it "genuinely desires the input of store employeeston the structure of the store" and directed the management to receive specific, constructive written input from the employees, including proposed alter- natives. However, the memorandum also stated "the board cannot com- promise its responsibility for making the final decision on this matter." Employees have until March 8 at noon to deliver their plans to the store management. On March 13 this input will be forwarded to thj board for .,:an i a af inl darinn i ..ll ha HE ADDED, however, that the struc- ture will not be negotiated when the workers' union, Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Local 660, negotiates its contract. "It's clear that the decision is up to the board," Pulkownik said. "As a board of student representatives, we can't give up the rights of the students to govern the store." He also said a key point is that the 40 'The U' Cellar Board of Directors genuinely de- sires the input of store em- ployees on the structure of the store but the board cannot compromise its re- sponsibility for making the final decision on this matter.' -Memorandum to store employees issue is strictly between the board, management, and the employees, and they are trying to keep it that way. "I TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Thousands of Iran's Jews left the country during the bloody upheavals of the Islamic revolution. But now, many Jews insist religious freedom and protection under his Islamic republic. THERE ARE no accurate figures on the number of Jews who recently have